Meanwhile this was what various medical professionals in that reddit thread had to say about it.
They do not, in fact, love it.
The proof that chiropractic is an utterly failed medical profession is not that adjustments can cause harm, but that the profession has responded by ignoring and denying the harm, rather than studying it.
All medical treatments (other than complete placebos) have some risk of harm, but for real treatments given by real professionals, the harms are tracked, measured and warned about. If the harms are too severe, the treatment is no longer used.
One of my colleagues was a chiropractor. After a while he began to suspect that a lot of his patients actually just had muscle tears, not spinal issues. He bought an ultrasound machine, learned how to use it and how to read ultrasound, and found that to be the case. Between that and the constant pressure from management to get customers (because lbr, they're not patients, they're customers), he got sick and tired of it and bailed to become a sonographer full time.
And before people pipe up with "but my chiro is good, they have me do exercises and so on!" that's just regular ass physiotherapy. See a physiotherapist. A lot of people who sing the praises of chiros because they saved them from chronic pain would have gotten the same benefits from seeing an actual licensed physio, who can prescribe the same or even better exercises because they have an actual fucking education.
The amount of fucking charts I've seen where a patient went to a chiropractor and now needs a surgery is fucking insane. All I do is medical charts, day in and day out doing medical code. I've gone over hundreds of patients whole year of appointments. Unless the chiropractor is also a physical therapist, that patient is going to get worse and need surgery with very few exceptions. It doesn't matter when they mention seeing a chiropractor, by the end of the year they need surgery for issues that started after *shock and awe* a chiropractor appointment! I've seen patients needing multiple surgeries to be functional after chiropractors. I've seen patients lose their ability to walk because of chiropractors. And all the way up till they need surgery, through the issues piling up and needing more pain meds, the patients insist it's helping because the want so badly for it to be helping. I wish it did
hopefully this isn't the stupidest question ever and someone here knows the answer, but: are massage therapists and medical massages similarly quacky and harmful, or are they legitimate services?
i technically should be in PT for life (hypermobile + chronic pain) but ins will only cover so much, so i've been looking into alternatives. obviously chiropractic is not it (yikes), so would massage therapy be helpful?
I also have chronic pain and have gone through PT also, I get it. But don't worry, that's not a stupid question, especially with safety being a priority. So the main issue with chiropractors is the risk of severe life changing injury with little proof of benefit or any medical evidence it will help. This same risk is not the case with massage. Massage can help with pain relief and there are trustworthy medical sources that say it can be beneficial. Let them know health concerns, but even a terrible massage is no where as risky as a chiropractor. Always check out a place first before going to be safe but it's definitely worth a try (I do the same with doctors- you wouldn't believe the bullshit I've seen about doctors looking them up before going)
thank you for taking the time to answer me <3 i've never had massage outside of a PT setting and those are always very brief, so i wasn't sure about the relative safety risk or if the potential benefits actually existed or not. this cleared up a lot for me!
(and god, i know, there are some awful goddamn doctors out there. why does it have to be so hard for us disabled + chronically ill people to get help T-T)
